Work continues on the Portsmouth Music Documentary with new interviews shot every week. Follow us on our Facebook page to see the teaser when it comes out next week. In the meantime, check out Red Sky Mary’s “Seeking Salvation” Music video produced by Marc Dole and Michael Venn.

Yet another WIP of Super Service. This video is testing some of the facial rigging as it currently stands for the main character, Walter, and making sure that transitions are smooth, and textures interact accordingly with the animation. The main setup is a mix of blend shapes (morphs), bones/chains, and expressions controlled through a intuitive OGL GUI interface for the animator.

On Thursday, June 24th, Red River Theatres in Concord will host a Mito-Kids fundraiser event. We will be screening two Mito-Kids film projects: Mito-Kids: Documenting Life and Deaf Perception. Both films have open captions for the enjoyment of hearing and deaf audiences. There will be a Q&A with the family and filmmakers directly following the screenings, with ASL translation.

Mito-Kids: Documenting Life:
Mito-Kids: Documenting Life is a short documentary about four teenage sisters who have grown up with disabilities that stem from mitochondrial disease, a chronic, genetic disorder that occurs when the mitochondria of the cell fail to function properly. This video family history follows the Dole family as they are diagnosed with a series of diverse medical problems including diabetes, deafness, seizures, fatigue issues, thyroid problems and dementia. Frustrated by the lack of information available, they look for answers, while maintaining a focus on living their lives to the fullest. The short documentary was completed in 2009. The producers have made this film available to existing Mitochondrial awareness initiatives while working on the feature film version.

Deaf Perception:
Deaf 15 year old twin teenage sisters enter a cafe to share coffee and stories from their day. But the hearing patrons around them are captivated by their use of their hands to talk. A group of immature boys makes fun of the sisters, as the sisters discuss how closed minded people can be. But just as they sign this, they themselves see a new sign. Written by Alyssa & Ashley (the deaf and hearing impaired twin sisters themselves).

If you are unable to attend the event but would like to donate Annie’s Angels is our 501c3 fiscal sponsor and donations of $50 to $25,000 can be made to their site online at anniesangels.net. Please select Britney Dole – Mito Kids as your cause.

Here is a quick WIP of the gas station sign which will most likely double as the title screen for the movie… Going for a blend of modern LCD screens with retro styling and lights. Fonts and LCD screen styling/animation is still TBD… Thanks for looking!

Here are two of the latest updates to the Super Service short film currently in production at Hatchling. These two clips help to showcase the two models better, and also help to solve/predict some of the shader and render issues that may come up later on in production (mental-ray seems to be having some finicky NaN issues with rendering refractions at the moment, which is why it has taken so long to get these two models sorted out and rendering correctly…). Particles/fx on the car model are setup to be created automatically during animation based on wheel speed, velocity, and distance of the wheels to the ground plane/surface. All shaders for both models are generated procedurally in hopes of keeping them resolution independent and being flexible enough to use in various situations and from various camera angles. Rendering is done using MentalRay for XSI.

One bus ride, two flights and a train ride from now…I’ll be in Cannes! Hatchling has produced 12 short films in the last 18 months and 3 of those films will appear in the Shorts Corner in Cannes. I’m thrilled to me going to the Shorts Corner to support these projects which range from a documentary about a family afflicted by Mitochondrial Disease to a film written by, directed by and starring deaf twin sisters.

.Mito-Kids: Documenting Life
In a family shadowed by disease, there is a fine line between spoiling your kids…and making sure every second is treasured.

Deaf Perception
Deaf twin sisters sign their way through ignorance and prejudice, discovering compassion in an unlikely corner of a local coffeehouse.

Dark Scribbles (Produced by Two Twenty Two Films, Written and Directed by Michael Venn)
Nothing is exactly what it’s supposed to be…

Check back later this week for updates from the Shorts Corner in Cannes…
-Karlina